Mark Cooley is an interdisciplinary artist interested in exploring the intersections of art, activism and institutional critique in a variety of contexts. Subjects of particular interest are U.S. foreign policy, corporate culture, and the political economy of new technologies. Recently, Mark has focused his attention on food production and consumption and the ways in which artists may mediate in these processes.

You are invited, in person or via audio/video/text conference, to a
roundtable discussion of artistic and technological communities hosted
by the Integrated Digital Media Institute of Polytechnic University.

As it's an example familiar to many, we will use the Share community
(http://share.dj) as a starting point for discussion, which should
last about 3 hours. Bring energy bars/drinks if you fear you might
flag.

## you will be observed...

This roundtable idea was set into motion by Michael Liegl, a
sociologist from Ludwig-Maximilian UniversitÃ¤t, Germany, who has been
studying the experimental music and VJ scene for quite some time now.
Michael will present slides and video footage from Share to get us
talking.

If you'd like to participate remotely, please contact
roundtable@share.dj to work out the technical details. For more on
the topics we will discuss (and to add your own suggestions to the
mix), consult the wiki at http://share.dj/wikis/roundtable/ .

I would like to introduce myself to the list. I'm Marco Mancuso, new media
art journalist, curator and critic. I live and work in Milan, Italy and I
would like to introduce you the cultural and editorial project DIGICULT
(http://www.digicult.it) that I founded at the beginning of 2005. It's the
first Italian web portal about electronic arts and digital culture and it's
deep involved in the pubblication of the first monthly e-magazine called
DIGIMAG (http://www.digicult.it/digimag) speaking about: netart, hacktivism,
software art, video art, electronica, audiovideo, artificial intelligence,
new media, performing art, interaction design. DIGICULT is also the first=
=20
italian
network of almost 30 people and 10 huge italian communities and projects
collaborating to the magazine and the portal at large; some the best italian
journalists, curators, critics and professionists of the growing and
spreading new media culture in Italy. We would like to be the first
cultural-editorial activist network project in Italy, completely
indipendent, no dipending from any owner, writing and speaking and
discussing and reflecting freely about everything we consider important
today in the world of electronic culture and arts. From September you can
browse DIGICULT also in english at http://www.digicult.it/index_eng.htm

Beneath our feet and above our heads, sidewalks, lawns, plazas, blocks, gardens, buildings, streets, and curbs surround and bound the spaces in which we move and live. Much more than a lifeless negative space, these elements of the built environment provide us with symbols through which we construct our understanding of the world, deriving stories about our past, present and future.

At the same time, architects, planners, and designers, acting under the influence of political, social, and economic forces, tear down, alter, construct, and preserve these physical forms in an attempt to shape the environment along socio-political and aesthetic lines. The tension between these “intended